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29 October 2013

No More Sleepy Blues

For a while now I have been really struggling to sleep at night. I couldn't work out why I couldn't drift off it was getting me down. Because of the lack of sleep, it made my whole day drag as I was shattered and it started to get me down. I wrote about it last month in my post I've Got The Sleepy Blues and now wanted to do a follow up post about how I have changed my routine to sort out the problem.

I started off by looking a the replies I got to my original post and trying out some of the tips there.

Filling Your Tummy

Apparently eating something like a banana before bed is supposed to help aid sleep as they contain an amino acid called tryptophan. Tryptophan is known as the sleepy substance and is found naturally in bananas, figs, cottage cheese, eggs and milk.

Sleep Comfort

After looking at why I could be struggling to sleep, I realised that I wasn't actually comfortable when I got into bed. The mattress we had was quite old and one of the springs had gone. Could this be the problem? I combated this straight away by ordering a memory foam mattress which contain no springs and helps you to sleep by moulding and shaping to your body and making you feel comfortable.

Clearing the Mind

This can be by different means. Getting bubble bathed up, lighting some candles and relaxing before bed to sooth the mind.

Reading a book to get my mind on that rather than other stresses in my life.

And the biggest one of all, cutting down on watching telly on a night and turning off my phone before bed so that I'm not tempted to stay up and look on that all night.

Lavender Love

This is one of the best herbs for helping sleep. Either by using lavender scented bubble bath, drops for the pillows or room sprays. It has a soothing scent and is well known for its relaxing properties and is a great sleep aid.

After trying all of these out, I am happy to report that I am now sleeping better. I think the most important things for me were the fact that I am now sleeping in a comfortable bed and having no technology on at night. Trying to relax before bed rather than get into the next episode of Under The Dome and it ticking through my brain all night.

I am so glad that people took the time to comment on my first post and give me tips as they have helped so much so thank you!

Sleep is important, and yes there are some things that help. Probably having a regular routinue is the one thing that really helps. Though sometimes when that routinue is not kept, it can unfortunately take some time and tactics to return to getting a good regular nights sleep. The hints you mentioned are certainly ones that I have found to be useful.